Friday, January 18, 2013

Pay Revision of Pay with effect from 1.1.2011

Confederation General Secretary publishes the detailed note
on the fifteen points demands, including the main point of ‘Pay Revision of Pay
with effect from 1.1.2011′.

Item No. 1. Revision of wage with effect from. 01.01..2011.

The present wage structure of the Central Govt. Employees
has been made on the basis of the 6th Central Pay Commission’s recommendations.
The 6th CPC introduced a new concept in the form of Pay band and Grade Pay. The
recommendations of the Commission were implemented with effect from 1.1.2006 in
the case of Pay and in the case of allowances with effect from 1.9. 2008. In
the case of Central Public Sector undertakings, the wage revisions normally
takes place after every five years.

The 5th CPC in the case of Central Government employees
recommended wage revision in every 10 years. In the past wage revision has been
linked to the extent of erosion of real wages. The degree of inflation in the
economy determines the pace of erosion of the real value of wages. The retail
prices of those commodities which go into the making of minimum wages have
risen by about 160% from 1.1.2006 to 1.1. 2011, whereas the D.A. compensation
in the case of Central Government employees on that date had been just 51%.

It is also an acknowledged fact that the 6th CPC had
computed the minimum wage by suppressing the retail price of these commodities
in the market on the specious plea that official statistics of the retail
prices of these commodities were not available. They therefore, computed the
retail price by increasing the wholesale price by 20% for each of the commodity
whereas the actual retail price in the market was 60% more than the wholesale
price. While in the case of Group B,C & D employees, the Commission applied
a multiplication factor of 1.86 for arriving at the revised pay structure, in
the case of Group A Officers, the factor was ranging from 2.36 to 3 times.

In the matter of fitment formula also, unlike recommended by
the 5th CPC, the 6th CPC adopted varying percentages whereby the officers in
Group A were given rise extending from 42 to 49%, whereas the employees in
Group B,C,D were granted only 40%. While implementing the Commission’s
recommendations, the Government further accentuated the discrimination further.

The recommendations of the 6th CPC when implemented gave
rise to very many glaring anomalies. They were assured to be looked into and
settled through negotiations in the JCM. The effectiveness of JCM as a potent
forum to settle issues has been eroded over the years. Thus, though the
National Anomaly Committee met 4-5 times, it could not settle any major issues.

The minimum wage determined by the 6th CPC was at a far
lesser amount than what an unskilled worker is entitled to. Morevoer, the
Commission assigned the so determined minimum wage to be the wage of a skilled
worker.. It excluded persons below matriculation qualification from the purview
of Government employment. In a country where one third people are illiterate,
such controversial recommendations have only gone to absolve the State from its
solemn responsibility to provide employment to the persons at the lower strata
of the society. The wage structure evolved by the 6th CPC deviated drastically
from the concepts emerged from the deliberations over decades in the matter of
wage determination of civil servants and is beset with innumerable anomalies
necessitating a thorough overhaul , which can only be attempted by setting up
another Commission with appropriate terms of reference.

The Grameen Dak Sewaks were excluded from the purview of the
6th Central Pay Commission as the Postal Department took an erroneous view that
they are not Central Government employees. The 4th CPC had categorically stated
that they ought to have been included within the purview of the Commission’s
jurisdiction but chose to go by the Postal Department’s decision ultimately.
the GDS constitute the largest chunk of the Postal Workers.

The exclusion of GDS from the purview of the Pay Commission
being unjust, discriminatory and bereft of any logic, the next Pay Commission
when it is set up must have the jurisdiction to recommend on wage structure and
service conditions of the GDS.

Wage revision in all public Sector undertakings through
Collective bargaining takes place once in five years. On the same analogy, the
wage revision of the Central Government employees must be after every five
years and the Government must therefore set up the 7th CPC immediately.